Nursing Homes Making Money while Providing Less Care
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A recent New York Times article exposes some scary numbers regarding nursing home care. They report 94 percent of for-profit nursing homes were cited for deficiencies of care last year. This raises the question: how are these nursing homes making their profit? Are they charging more because they give better care or are they making a profit because they are skimping and cutting corners on the quality of care they provide? Daniel R. Levinson, the inspector general of the Department of Health and Human Services states, “For-profit nursing homes had a higher average number of deficiencies than the other types of nursing homes.” This leads one to believe the for-profit homes are making money by providing less care instead of the higher quality of care their profit margins might suggest.
One possibility is some for-profit homes may have smaller staffs, which are inadequate to provide the needed attention to their elderly patients. Researchers have found that people receive better care at homes with a higher ratio of nursing staff members to patients. In addition, the Inspector General found some cases in which nursing homes billed Medicare and Medicaid for services that “were not provided, or were so wholly deficient that they amounted to no care at all.” Basically the homes are getting the money, but the patients are not getting the care.
With more than 15 million people living in 15,000 nursing homes, and two-thirds of those 15,000 being for-profit, these citations for poor care are unacceptable. All nursing homes that receive Medicare and Medicaid must comply with Federal Standards and are inspected once a year. However, yearly inspections may not be enough, and the public should remain alert and aware and demand better care for our elderly population.
Also for-profit homes are not the only ones with problems. The inspector general’s report found 88 percent of nonprofit homes were cited for deficiencies of care and 91 percent of government homes were cited. Mr. Levinson said. “In 2007, for-profit nursing homes averaged 7.6 deficiencies per home, while not-for-profit and government homes averaged 5.7 and 6.3, respectively.”